Be generous. Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words. It’s so much easier to be a critic than a celebrator. Always remember there is a human being on the other end of every exchange and behind every cultural artifact being critiqued. To understand and be understood, those are among life’s greatest gifts, and every interaction is an opportunity to exchange them.
—Brain Pickings
I came across this quote a couple of days ago, and it warmed my heart. I’d much rather celebrate than criticize. And one (fairly rare) trait I admire most in people is generosity of spirit. What do I mean by that? KB is the perfect example. She used to love to ski but can’t anymore because it’s too dangerous for her spine. Consequently if she doesn’t fight it, she can find the long winters in the Colorado Rockies depressing.
Last week was a horrible week for her because of the weather and the unrelenting spinal pain, but in A Week to Forget she says the clouds lifted briefly and she could see the ski hill. She adds,
The skiers are happy! And I’m happy for them.
If that isn’t generosity, I don’t know what is.
The next day (A Sunrise to Remember) she went out with Shyla at sunrise, to take a gazillion pictures and to lift her spirits by experiencing the beauty of her surroundings and to vicariously enjoy Shyla’s pain-free exuberance.
Thank you, KB, for enriching our lives by blogging regularly and sharing your photography and Shyla and R with us. Thank you for your generous spirit.
October 25, 2015
I agree with you – celebrate rather than criticise and be generous rather than mean. I celebrate all those unusual people who don’t conform to mainstream opinion and behaviour, who go their own way and enrich all our lives. And I despair at those people who expect normality (whatever that is) and chastise anyone who deviates from it.
Well said, thank you!
I wish that I had preceded Nick. I simply endorse what he has said.
I agree.
that quote could have come from my own mother.
she lived her entire life that way… and tried her best to instill it into her two children.
and i too love KB’s life and exquisite photography! but then…
look at her subjects!
Her photos are indeed exquisite! No snapshots there. 🙂
Generosity.
Too few people are truly generous.
So many times there is some sort of hidden agenda.
For someone to be in such pain, to be denied the ability to do what they love,
and yet to they are happy for others that are able to…?
Wow.
I don’t know KB, I must visit her blog , but just these facts
tell me that she is an amazing and special person.
Thank you for sharing.
xoxo
Bless the internet. She’s the kind of person I like to hang out with — the kind that bring out the best in me.
for me, who doesn’t have daily “over the top pain” but has other crosses – over the years I haven’t really got a ‘way thru it’ until recently when I realised how much I love fiddling errrrrrrrrrrr making artworks from whatever rocks my boat on the days in question. I want to be doing it all day, all night long – even when mortally I can’t… – I just realised that even though my hands do not accomplish things well, they are actually not doing so badly. Some of that has definitely been helped by my mentor – who says “my skills are to die for” – she was meaning at the time, the way I can draw lines! Which seemed funny at the time… oh well, I have fun now.
That can be so frustrating. I’m so glad your mentor could help you enjoy making art.